Setting an Example

K-Lai — Tue, 20 Jan 2004 23:14:00 -0800

“Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”
- 1 Timothy 4:11-12 (NIV)

I forget how young Timothy really was. Paul took Timothy under his “wing” and brought this young lad with him everywhere. Timothy was totally FAT - Faithful, Available, Teachable (that’s the last time you’ll see me use some acronym or other mnemonic). Paul taught Timothy so much – in speech and in life. Timothy saw Paul plant churches, reason with the Jews and Greeks, work hard for his living, suffer for the name of Christ, and through it all Timothy stayed by Paul’s side. Now that Timothy is a pastor of a new church, Paul writes to Timothy and gives him all of these instructions and exhortations. Hold onto the truth. Be careful of your doctrine. Find trustworthy men to be in positions of responsibility in the church. Teach faithfully.

In the middle of all of these instructions, Paul tells Timothy to not let anyone look down on him because of his age, but to set an example through speech, life, love, faith, and purity. That’s pretty challenging stuff. First of all, Paul tells Timothy that regardless of our physical age, God can use us and we should not let anyone intimidate us on that basis alone. We aren’t supposed to be seeking approval from others anyways. Second, the exemplary life listed covers basically everything. When we talk with people, we ought to encourage and challenge them to pursue God more. Oftentimes I see that my conversations with Christians aren’t very encouraging – it’s mostly mundane drivel that I’ll forget in a week or so. But the few conversations I have with people who cause me to stop and think about my relationship with God, those are priceless. So our speech, our conversations, the way we talk with people needs to be at a high standard. Our speech should bring people closer to Christ, regardless of whether we’re talking about football, or the latest fashions. In that way, I think we can truly glorify God sincerely in our speech, and be a good example for believers.

Life is probably the one of the more important aspects. A lot of people look at the verse and think of speech as what you teach people and tell people to do. I took it from a different approach. But regardless of speech, a life that is proven to be godly carries more weight than any other aspect. In a sense, out of that type of life everything else overflows. But anyways, people will respect you if you live a life that is respectable. Then they’ll be willing to hear what you have to say, if you’re teaching stuff. I could go on, but it’d be pretty redundant.

This is taking a long time…But I should probably hit these last three. Some other time.

k-lai.com: Setting an Example

Setting an Example